BlueLite: A debugged Holmes 1977 D&D (pdf in english and spanish)

I just bring this here to not lose track of this gem. Its made by this guy, and its a revised, clarified and reformatted version of the blue book, which also features:

* All rolls being made with a d20 (thief skills, common skills, etc have their numbers adapted to the same die)

* Bugs fixed and small improvements (2 handed weapons attack every turn as normal, Strength is added to melee damage, etc. See end notes in the PDF for more details)

* Magic items and potions are now created randomly

* Only 10 pages long, which makes it easy to use, and also being streamlined makes it easier to modify should you want to. Personally I would have used one or two extra pages for describing the monster's aspect and behavior

* Awful art, just like the original

Author's link:

Bluelite-RPG-by-Troy-Press-4.pdf (troypress.com)

Traduccion al español:

BLUELITE_Español_V0.1.pdf - Google Drive

magic system sketch

Following the guidelines of previous entries, I'm devising some possibilities to simple and cool magic systems.

I want magic progression to follow a 4-step, exponential structure; from non-magical, to initiate, mage and archmage (and diminishing gains after that if any). 

Magic, then, is cast from a list of spells that increase in number on every "magical grade", but also in power.

What I have for now is this:

Initiates roll 1d6 when casting spells

Mages roll 2d6

Archmages roll 3d6

and spells have three parameters to be measured:

Impact (how many hp you heal, damage you do, effect you cause, etc)

Range (how many people it affects)

Retain (decides if the spell is retained after use or not)

As I want that there are mechanical benefits to casters to disregard armor, I made it so wearing armor or other encumbrances decreases the chance to retain spells: you must roll your movement rate or under to keep the spell.

Sample movement rates:

No armor=2

Light armor=1

Heavy armor=0

Initiates roll 1d6 to cast magic. So when an initiate rolls a heal spell, the result defines all parameters; but one from impact or range is defaulted to 1:

Lets say he rolls a 4: he can choose to heal a target 4 hit points, or heal 1 hit point to up to four targets. As he rolled over its movement rate (no armor=2), the spell is lost.

Mages roll 2d6 to cast magic. They can allocate the results anywhere they see fit from Impact, Range or Retain. A parameter which has no results is defaulted to 1, and if its Retain, its automatically lost.

Mage in no armor rolls a 4 and a 2 when healing: He can choose, for example, to heal 4 points to a target and keep the spell (2 is equal to his movement rate); or maybe he can heal 2 points to 4 targets and lose the spell.

Archmages roll 3d6 to cast magic. They are, of course, benefited from allocating low rolls on Retain and high rolls on effect. 

Archmage in light armor casts heal and rolls 3, 3 and 1. He heals three points to three different targets, and as he keeps the spell, he can attempt it again next turn.

Now the base is established, lets get to the fun spare bits:

* Some spells make no sense in having a numerical score for Impact, but they can be described differently depending on the result assigned to it (from an 1 to 6 score, how much does "Magical Light" shine into the cave?). On others, where the result is a matter of yes or no (charm, sleep, maybe) the Impact roll can measure the number of turns affected, being a threshold that you must reach for the spell having an effect (like in "sleep needs a 3 at least to kick in") or just having the spell work straight, and making it more a matter on "how many people you sleep" (effectivelly putting the weight on the Range score)

* Mages and Archmages revert to 1d6 lower if they are for any reason deprived from their magical wands (I'm a great fan of Earthsea novels)

* Spells can be learned multiple times. This is the way in which a forest nymph (Initiate level) would cast Entangling vines many times before retreating.

* Things that complicate this structure further must be treated on a case by case basis, described on the specific spell description.

* Casters can attempt to cast spells reactivelly: when they are attacked, they can attempt to cast a spell before the attack takes place. This is done by casting normally, and if the Retain is successful, the spell is cast before the attack. If the Retain is lost, the spell takes effect after the attack (if the mage is still alive and any other conditions allow it). In any outcome, this consumes the casters' turn.

*It is weird that mages can only cast spells on groups of 6, no matter their power, huh? To fix that, having a range of 6 means you cast the spell on all the group you select (all foes, all allies, everyone but a single person... its your call)

Charm, Sleep, Fear, Confusion

Writing some spell lists, I've come to think about D&D's mind-altering spells in particular. Charm, Sleep, Fear, Confusion. 

They all have the potential to be encounter-skippers. Then, why choose one over the other? 

In the rules the differences are subtle: Charm might give you a temporary ally, so does Confusion by making an enemy so confuse that attacks itself or its allies. Sleep might affect more enemies. Fear makes the target flee, carrying away all treasure they might hold.

But in practice, rules as written, they speak more about how the enemies act than on how they do feel. For example: by casting fear, an NPC will never react to fear by trying desperately to befriend you, like in a charm spell (so you spare his life) or channel the fear attacking, but awkwardly, like in a confusion spell. RAW, they will always flee. So the spell effect is not as much about what does the target feel, its more about what they physically do.

So, a wizard learning Fear in wizard school, dreaming of the day in which he will subdue armies at his feet using magical fear, will be dissapointed because fear will only send them fleeing from him,

I'm thinking on having all those spells somehow mixed in one. Lets call it "Ensorcell".

When you cast it, you change the reaction of target NPC 2 steps up or down the Reaction Table. That is the effect. It's the GM who, depending on the reaction and the situation, describes which is the magical effect who caused it. Lets say that the Reaction Table its like:

A goblin who is attacking you (Immediate Attack) would be hold for some turns (confused). The GM says if its because of fear, daze, tiresomeness or maybe he is tripping balls.

A hostile one (roll of 3-5) would retire its attack completely. Maybe he is asleep or just lost his will to fight. He might not get in love with you, but will be opened to negociation.

If the monster is undecided (6-8), then you have the chance to make it your pal/waifu, as a classic Charm spell.

Possibly you can increase the power of this spell somehow, to make an Immediate Attack become an Enthusiastic Friendship by casting it twice or whatever. 

Now, I can imagine the same wizard in wizard school, memorizing lots of different theorems and tricks to be capable to ensorcell enemies someday, and adapt his spells no matter the situation. 

The bad part of this approach is that, when cast on PCs, it lacks guidelines on what should happen. The GM should interpret it based on the shown attittude of the PC towards the caster and interpret it as it was a reaction roll.

Monsters that normally cast effects on PCs, such as sirens or vampires, still work normally casting Charm or Fear, and should affect PCs just as they do in classic rules, no matter what is their attitude. They are monsters after all and work outside the PC's rules.

average damage comparison, on the way to single roll combat

 I leave this here for me to consult thereafter

They are tables that compare the average damage of a strike VS ascending ACs, assuming d6 damage, d6+1 or d8 damage and d6+2 or d10 damage. 

Below is the same table if we assume a 2d6 to hit roll, with the roll excess over AC being the damage done. This rends that the most accurate ACs to convert would be base 5 to plate 8; or using instead 2 types of armor (light and heavy) and make it base 6, light armor 7, heavy armor 8. Shields would either be straight up better than in d20 or can be used as "shields shall be splintered" only (though I really dislike that approach)

Same table, but using ACs from 0 to 6, with attack rolls being made with d6, d8, d10 and d4. Again, excess over AC is the damage dealt. 

I'm uncertain on this one. The most obvious port would be to use d6 as common weapon damage, then 1 as base ac, light armor as 2 and heavy as 3, with 4 being the additional shield. Then using increments in damage die size as the equivalent of character bonuses-to-hit on level ups. According to this sophisticated charts, just using a d8 would increment as much average damage as a +6 to hit in d20 (which is a level 10 fighter in S&W). D10 and d12 would be reserved for monsters.

There is also option 2, to use d8 as the common martial weapon damage, and then make it so Base AC is 2, +1 leather. +2 plate, +1 shield. 

This method, however, only deals with averages, but the theory says that this will make combats have less "miss" results, but hits will normally deal less damage than with separate rolls for hit and damage (even if in the end the monster takes the same amount of turns to drop). 

Minimalistic D&D part V: Hirelings and Morale without Charisma

First and foremost, I've retooled the 2d6 morale roll to a 1d6 roll (roll equal or lower to stay in the fight). The real reason is that all the other mechanics I'm writing use 1d6 too, so it makes the rules prettier overall, but its hard to admit this vain part of me. The reason I tell myself is that it allows me to change the 2-12 range of morale in monsters to one with less granularity and that makes it easier for me to adscribe a rating to a monster based on their description.

morale 11-12 becomes 6 (mindless undead, never flees) 

morale 9-10 become 5 (really brave or mad warriors, dire animals, uruk hai or dragons)

morale 8 becomes 4 (monsters with martial training, annoyed predators, etc)

morale 7 becomes 3 (annoyed peoples, common predators when not overhungry, 50% chance to flee)

morale 5-6 becomes 2 (if a monster is sort of coward-ish, herbivore animals, etc)

morale 4 becomes 1 (mostly not combatants, rust monsters, etc)

Then we get to the next part: This rules I'm writing in this rule series have no attribute scores for characters, so I don't have charisma to determine number or loyalty for hirelings. 

For the number, I don't yet know what to do. Maybe base the cap on gold alone: if you can pay them, you can buy them. There is something I like about independizing charisma from hirelings, which is that I can treat hirelings as belonging/following to the whole party instead of a single PC individual, which makes more sense to me. This and reaction rolls I feel that could work better if adressed by the group as a whole.

The downside is that being "communal" and independent from charisma, PCs might lose some agency over the behavior of their henchmen. The upside is that when you die and must roll a new character, you can pick any of your common hirelings instead of your personal ones. Is like a common pool for second characeters.

For the loyalty: Whenever you find a tavern/inn/town in which 1dX hirelings are available, you roll for their morales secretly: 3d6 keep lowest. Sum the other 2 dice: that's the price he reclaims per month/adventure/whatever. The idea is that it gives you an idea of his morale without really telling you.

Morale 1 or 2 for torchbearers or sages, 3 and 4 for bandits or men at arms. Morale 5 is for this mysterious strangers smoking on the dark table by the bottom room. Maybe I could make a table of hirelings or something, with one special trait for each, like "+2 morale when tainted with jewels" "will steal from you" "morale drops to 1 in presence of spiders" etc.

When confronted with danger, they roll morale, not loyalty or anything. Their morale increases overtime somehow, with 5 being the maximum. 

When you give them an order that is not obviously dangerous they probably accept, mostly if it falls within their expected job. 

Loyalty takes two shapes: +1 to any morale roll derived from your orders if they have survived an adventure with you and +1 if you have some relevant special feat that allows you to be more charismatic than common people.

This rules can apply to Searchers of the Unknown or Here is some Fucking D&D, which I tried to scourge for hireling rules being both of them attribute-less. Just to find they hadn't any.

Alternativelly, there is another approach: to ditch all this post entirelly and to have monsters roll for reaction again at 50% hp left.

On the next chapter I'll probably steal something to abstract distances and get rid of counting feet altogether for this game.

Minimalistic D&D-like, part 4: Surprise, reaction, treasure rolls

Reaction and Surprise rolls, when apply, are made once for the whole party involved. Certain monsters have bonuses or penalties to this rolls integrated on them.

Reaction rolls:

1, 2, 3- Monster is immediately hostile
4, 5 - Monster is neutral for now. Maybe its studying you or maybe just minding its own business. Dont disturb it! You might also try to befriend it.
6 - Monster is friendly. Some monsters might make offers when this happens.

Possible mods: disadvantage if you've hurt similar monsters recently, if it hates the light of your torch, if you're armed, etc. Advantage if you give a sign of respect or share an alignment, etc. (like in 5e: roll an extra die and choose the most advantageous/disadvantageous)

Each monster entry in the guide might have specifics guidelines on their behaviors for each reaction type. An hostile bandit might try to rob the players by force, a neutral one might try to lure them by feigning partnership, but a friendly one might honestly try to sell them loot, or honestly propose the party to join him in a dishonest job.

Note for myself: It can also be done by not having a reaction table at all, but having each monster to have a random list of dispositions on their descriptions. 

Surprise:

1 - Monsters get the drop on you: Only monsters act the first round
2 - Monsters get the first turn
3 - Monsters get the first turn
4 - You get the first turn
5 - You get the first tutn
6 - You get to surprise the monsters: Only PCs act in this round

This roll can be made w.ith advantage or disadvantage on certain situations: for example, hobgoblins always force a disadvantage, while sneaking on distracted guards gives you advantage.

After one side plays a turn, the other side plays one, until all characters have acted their turns. Each side decides who goes from among their members

Treasure

Instead of having treasure types, having each monster have a treasure rate that represents the overall richness/status of the monster. Then you roll for treasure once or more times, depending on the time the monster has spent looting. 

For example, having a crew of patrolling goblins have 1d6-2 treasure hidden somewhere. A dragon rolls 2d6, and you roll three to five times depending on its age.

Then there should be a table like this:

1 - No treasure/personal items.
2 - Personal tools
3 - 10 GP
4 - 50 GP
5 - 100 GP
6 - Magic item
7 - 500 GP
8 - 500 GP (in jewelry)
9 - 500 GP (in masterwork)
10 - Scroll or Magical consumable
11 - Special (prisoner, secrets, notes, information)
12 - 1000 GP

Minimalistic D&D-like, part 3: Saves

Part of a series building a game without levels, hit dice, ability scores or classes. The main resolution is 1d6 for everything.

As a quick recap, numerically and chemically speaking, characters have:

#Hit Points, and some power ups derivated from their amount (+ac and +attacks per round)

#Spell Points per day, and some power ups derivated from their amount (+magic resistance and power) and a list of spells known

#Specials (like being strong, an animal companion, or whatever that is a significative trait but is not a spell)

So, without any level-related characteristic to increment the saving throws, how can we deal with such things when they arise? I'll run over the most common "Save Or" states to see what can be done. 

"Partake of the fruit!!"

Poison: 

* "You drank poison... you died". This can actually work if the poison was telegraphed well enough. I think its even on an actual Raggi's module. Still, you can give the poison 2d6 turns to take effect, in which healing actions can be attempted. Sucking out the venom in the case of snakes, or applying an antidote, for example.  Shifting more agency to the equipment is another of my goals, so, in that line, buying antidotes for different venoms can be something interesting for adventurers to invest in. 

* The person who poisoned you might know or even carry the antidote.

* If it's deadly over time, roll 1d6 and keep that number. For every night or every strenous action you take, decrease the number by 1. Getting rests or treatment lets you re-roll, and maybe heal on a 6. 

* For creatures that can poison you, make it so they need to hit you. Maybe even apply a certain amount of damage (for example, if they score exactly 1 damage) and skip the save altogether. In the end the randomization is the same. If it seems unfair, its because the monster makes the roll, not the victim. But in the end it's the same.

* Poison doesn't have to be deadly: it can be paralizating or narcotic. For example, make it so the effect lasts (1d6-1) turns/hours/whatever.

* Let's not forget the magical solutions: Neutralize Poison is a cleric spell. 

Dragon breath: 

* This is just a dragon attacking, it just covers a big area, but its the same nonetheless. Just take the damage from the hit points, which are already a measure of how likely you are to survive an attack. I happen to have had a good idea for dragon breath and I leave it here for posterity (keep in mind that damage is scaled to an hypotetic game):

"Everyone in range of attack gets 1d6 damage, rolled separately. Then the smallest dice rolled deals damage again to ALL victims"

This way, the more people is attacked, the smallest the extra die will be. Using the same attack, the dragon will do statistically more damage to a single target (average 7, good chance of 12 hp) than to a group of targets (average drops towards 4'5, chances of more than 7+ hp decrease drastically with every new target). This models nicely the concentration of fire of the dragon and can be played around using decoys or even hirelings. But you will never do that, would you?

* The use of shields or any other blockage can shelter you from a little damage versus dragon breath. Of course, magical shields vs dragonbreath are even better, and should be one of the most ubiquitous magic items on any fantasy game that behaves realistically.

Petrification: 

* If players are savvy enough, they will activelly look away from the gaze of the basilisk. If they accept the (-1) penalty to attack rolls, they wont be turned into stone. Unless, you know, they roll a 1 or under. I'm against botch rolls in games, but they can be used in special situations like that. If they botch a roll attacking or running from the basilisk, they are turned to stone.

* You can make it less deadly: you don't turn into rock in a snap: instead you are paralyzed and you have 1d6-1 turns until you become solid rock. Anyone breaking line of sight between the basilisk and you will have you released in 1 turn (be it by covering you with a blanket, shooting an arrow into the basilisk eye, turning off the light, etc). Same for gorgons.

* On the "inventory" side, you can find:

- amulets against petrification (they break when you would otherwise be petrified)

- antidotes against petrification (like a "soft" from FFVII). You can make them cheap (and only works on those that are half-petrified), expensive af (can undo a recent petrification) or mythic (will turn any stone statue to flesh)

- a flash grenade that impedes vision. Same with a darkness spell or provoking a great smoke into the room,

- buying or asking an artificer for sunglasses made of mirrors. 

- installing mirrors at the medusa's halls, then making her follow you so she run into herself at the turn of a corner

* Make it so the gaze must be sustained for a turn (so it will only work on immobilized or tricked PCs)

* Hit points are abstracted enough so they can represent avoiding harms different from physical damage. You can make it so the basilisk gaze deals 1d6 doom damage that ignores armor. Once you are at 0 hp, you are turned into stone.

* The Stone to flesh spell is a thing. There is no reason that you can even make up more spells that ward against more ailings if in need.

* If nothing convinces you, just deal with a death save (see below)

Spells: 

* Make the spells require a mistake from the players to be committed in order to take effect. For example, eating strange fruits from weird silent ladies in the middle of a dungeon. Or make them require intimacy, or touch range. If you approach a weeping, encroached figure in a ghastly place, you can first weigh your chances and then take an action.

* As in poison, giving the spell a chance to work instead of working automatically accomplishes the same stastical function, though shifting the roll from the affected to the caster.

* Polymorph spells are not totally unfair if the target retains the agency in its new shape. Maybe you can play as a frog for a while, maybe even retain your hp and abilities. If you do polymorph, consider giving the players shapes that can still be played. 

* Again, certain inventory can be found or bought to protect from spells. This, paired with giving the spells a time to act (1d6 turns or 1d6 days) will also give players the chance to revert or minimize the damage. If you feel you've been hit by a sleep spell, you can try to eat coffee grains. If you are hearing a charming song, you can try to cover your ears (this makes you unable to hold or use weapons). Put on a walkman if you have one. Invent your share of magical antidotes, but also allow creative approaches. If some vines are coming out of the earth to grab you, dont bother with paralyzation rolls: you can try to cut them in time: give them an AC and start slashing. You can even try to scare or attack the wizard away in that 1d6 time. Who knows! 

* Spells that do damage, work as damage. Or even as dragon breath. Spells would otherwise paralyze can just hinder you slightly (penalties to rolls: you're feeling too cold to properly move, -1 to anything that requires finesse) or hard (penalties that are cumulative each turn: each turn, roll 1d6: on a 1, the chill gets worse: additional -1 and you will freeze completely when you get -3)

Death:

* When you suffer a grievous death, roll 1d6. On a 6, you get better. Fate favours you, something happens, whatever, but you are still OK. This roll can be modified by special things in game, such as having received the blessing of a princess before you had parted to your last quest (roll a second die, keep highest!) or by a healing spell by one of your comrades. EDIT: This also pairs nicely with another rule I made for monks and mummies: Get 1 free success for answering a question.

* Depending on the tone you want for your game, you can make it so this roll is only enabled after that certain things have happened, instead of being enhanced. Anyways, GM will describe something as absurd as the Naruto's resurrections if he must, but you won't die. 

polymorphed, no save.

No class, no saves, no problem: All in the Attribute Scores

An opposite approach from what I did in here is to ditch classes, level and skills and choose the other abstraction to build the system around: The ability scores.
Wisdom decides how well a cleric you are. Dexterity does that for thieves. Strenght doesn't really work for fighters, however, as there are other factors that might decide in how good a fighter you are than your bulk body power, so I'm using CON instead
The most obvious advantage on using ability scores is that it keeps the thrill of rolling a character (instead of just rolling the HP), and also allows checks by rolling under the given ability score. For a game with both clerics and wizards WIS and INT can be separated. I prefer to merge both concepts into an attribute called MAG.

When you create a character, roll 2d8 in order (yeah, that will produce below average guys) Mods, however, can't go below -1. Positive mods ALLOW you to perform certain tasks,  and you still roll under score to see how well you perform (having +2 STR is better to force doors than just +1 even if you can attempt it with just +1)

STR: Mods adds to melee damage. +1 allows for force doors, +2 allows to bend bars
DEX: Adds to missile. +1 allows for easy thieving skills like pickpockets, +2 allows for advanced thief skills like climb sheer walls. Used as a reflex save.
CHA: Your common hireling/reaction mods. Also used to save VS any soul or mind controlling effect (willpower save).

CON: This amount is literally your Hit Points, and also says how well you are as a fighter. At +1 you get an extra attack with your favored weapon, or maybe some armor. At +2 or +3 you get extra attacks regardless of weapons. Read the last articles to know more about my stubborness of claiming that Fighting Prowess is indisoluble from Having more HP. Can be used as a Fortitude save but I'd rather make that kind of things just drain HP
MAG: How much magical shit you know. Roll under this to detect magic or to get a glimpse of the otherwordly side of your surroundings.
At +1 you get a 1st level spell
At +2 you get a 2nd level spell and two 1st level spells
At +3 you get a 3rd level spell, two 2nd level spells and three 1st level spells.
Rearrange spells to fit in three level categories OR allow higher level spells to be cast using magical trinkets, magical places or other aids.



Provisional score to mod conversion:

2-8: -1
9-12: 0
13-15: +1
16-17: +2
18:+3


Evidently, in a game deprived of levels or other mechanical parts, when you "level up" you raise your ability scores (thats why I had them start low at 2d8). Maybe raising 2 points at will per level, always capped at 18.
And that is how you become a better figher/wizard/thief, not by picking it as a class.


Rolling certain distributions at the start might give you the chance of playing an ELF, DWARF or any other, like a class requirement. Then you get the darkvision or knowledge about caves; thats the only way to pick them.

Minimalistic D&D-like part 2

At character creation, you roll 1 or 2 d6 (to be decided later). Then you get hp as per this table:

Roll of 1-3: Add that amount of HP and get a special (strenght, parry, unarmed fighing, etc) or a spell.

Roll of 4-6: You get either 4 HP OR 2 SP (Spell Points) and a known spell.

From this rolls, the divergence between martials having lots of HP and Wizards having little HP is created.

Each SP allows you to cast 1 spell from the list you know.

At 6 hp you become a Warrior (+1 AC, you deal d6 damage regardless of weapon until you reach this rank) at 10 hp a Champion (+1 Attack/round) and at 14 hp a Hero (+ 1 Attack/round).

Converselly, if you want to climb the Wizard's ladder, it is measured in the SP amount:

2 SP: Initiate, you roll a d4 for casting magics.

4 SP: Enchanter or Priest. You get your mandatory staff that lets you roll d6 for magic and can cast the Light spell. +1 Magic Resistance

6 SP: Wizard or High Priest/ess, you roll d8 for magic. +2 Magic Resistance

Magic Resistance is substracted from psychical or magical attacks and can be increased by wearing certain amulets and magic related gear. Some other crystals or robes might grant extra SP per day, but do not count for rank purposes.

These are the available starting spells. Others will appear during the game (so I can make up things on the way). You roll your magic die to cast them: it serves as the amount of damage/heal they do if they do any.

1. Heal: Heal allies or damage undead by the same amount. Can also dispel one curse or mind altering spell.

2. Cold: Cold based damage. Enemy movement = Slow by the same amount of turns

3. Scry: Ask a question, you get a 1-word answer. The answer is notated in your sheet until you have words = to your Magic Die maximized. From then, the spell will only answer choosing the most appropiate of those words (You develop a limited divination language). Use runes or cards to ask 2 questions instead.

4. Wink: Prevent your die in damage suffered this turn, you also dissapear from melee and can appear on ranged distance or go hidden.

5. Bird: Crow, swan, owl, falcon... every wizard school has its own bird they use as alter-egos. Choose yours. You can fly or flee at 1d10 speed; your maximum hp is 6.

6. Tame: Roll over 2 + Magic Resistance to get the next best result on the reaction roll; friendly monsters act to your suggestions. Giant monsters have +1 Magic Resistance

COMBAT

1. All combat rolls are 1d6 vs Armor as Damage Reduction, with the difference being dealt in damage. Armor goes up to +3 in PCs as going further would make them almost damage-proof

2. Armor is part what you wear and part what you are. This is done because it feels good to me that an expert barbarian warrior gets the equivalent in armor as a man using a shield, and almost the same as a man in full plate.

You get +1 armor for achieving the warrior rank

You get +1 armor for carrying a shield. 

Light armor grants you +2 hp but no AC bonus

Heavy armor is +2 Hp, +1 AC, but slows movement

When it comes to the point in which armor is higher than that, it just gives extra HP or counts as wearing a shield.

Certain situations can bring you to higher AC, like riding a horse against an unmounted opponent or just being giant in size. Shields that provide resistance to fire might add an extra +1 vs fire, or just be able to work against fire while others won't. Both approaches are valid.

3. As all weapons deal d6 damage, the differences are more tactical than about firepower:

Swinging a dagger vs a guy with a sword allows the sword guy to attack you first. Same with a sword vs a spear. Combatants with the rank of Warrior count as having higher range when fighting non-warriors.

Heavy weapons can re-roll damage if you get results below a certain Strenght value.

Light weapons can parry if you learn the right feat (counts as shield for 1 turn) by changing your attack roll to a 1 (useful if you didnt score damage anyways). You strike at +1 in the next turn

Improvised weapons attack at -1, unarmed at -2

You can deal more damage per turn by getting extra attacks (which is tied to your Max HP totals instead of levels, see previous entries)

Minimalistic D&D-like (how many abstractions are too many?)

Inspired by this blog entry, This is a full disclosure of what I have in mind these days. D&D is full of abstractions, and I (think I) understand the idea behind all of them, but I think that some of them are redundant with some others:

- Levels provide both a sense of goal and progression, and a way to size up characters and monsters for spell/effect purposes
- Fighters get extra attacks with levels, or sometimes better chance to hit.
- Classes give you niche protection and diversity, with attributes giving you a better picture of your character.
- HP are a mixture of toughness, luck and kung fu
- Spells are given to the wizards in exchange of having poor HP and other pointless restrictions
- Skills are an add-on to make thieves have something of their own

I've devised a way to simplify this by making all things dependant straight into the Hit Points / Mana Points: Let me explain.

You get 2d4 HP at the start, or 1d4 HP and 1d4 MP (the average person has 1-4 Hit Points, so if you get more you can consider yourself a kind of experienced fighter in-world)

Classes/Attributes/Spells/Skills are all subsumed into something called Specials (because sounds better than feats). Some of them provide passive bonuses and some are active and require MP. There is a maximum of 4 which can be learned (taking this straight from the pokemon moves), though 1 or 2 more can be stored in magic items.

In the beggining, you must choose/roll one in a table of basic specials. The rest of them must be unlocked through play (once you've come in contact with the special through a source of inspiration/book/master you can pick them at level ups).

1. Monk (1d6 damage with fists or small melee weapons, +2 hp)
2. Strong (You can attempt feats of strenght; and can carry 2 extra items. Re-roll all 1s in melee damage. +2 Hp)
3. Agility (+1 AC when unencumbered, you can attempt agility feats )
4. Marksman (spend a turn aiming to add 1d4 damage to the next bow/sling attack)
5. Fend (with staves and swords, you can ditch a failed/low damage attack for a +1 AC bonus, just as if you wore a shield)
6. Healer (1 MP. Heal 1d6 hp; spend 3 MP instead to roll 2d6, one for HP and other for # of targets)
7. Divination: ( MP: 2 per Y/N question; requires quiet time)
8. Charm: 1 MP per d6 rolled. On every 6, improve by 1 the reaction roll.

(this list is veeeeeery provisional, but the idea is to have each Special embody a "type" of character)

Once all this is set, your starting character should be something like: 3 HP, 2 MP, Healer, 1d6 staff + Inventory + Name. You should not have to worry about more until you level up a bit.

You start as an Adventurer. Having HP 6 qualifies you as a Warrior, which may entail certain weapon uses. At 10 (Champion/Warlord) and 14 HP (Hero/Heroine), you get +1 extra attack or action per round

Having any MP at all makes you an Initiate. At 4 MP (Seer/Priest), at 8 (Enchanter/Enchantress) and 12 MP (Wizard), you get +1 Magic Rank (Adds to magical attacks AND magical AC against psychic damage; you can get some by buying amulets though. At Seer/Priest level, this power up is symbolized by a magical staff or symbol)

It will be all OK because the booklet will be written in this font: